“Jevne deserves accolades… masterful performance.”
Monday Magazine, Victoria, BC
Clayton Jevne
in
Moscow Stations
by
Stephen Mulrine
adapted from the novel Moscow to Petushki
by Venedikt Yerofeev
EDMONTON FRINGE THEATRE FESTIVAL
August 15 – 20
Performed by Clayton Jevne and directed by Graham McDonald, this production was a recent hit during its Victoria, BC run, and was subsequently invited to perform for New York’s United Solo International Festival. Moscow Stations is a poetic gem, crafted by Venedikt Yerofeev, one of Russia’s most revered modern writers. While the plot is simple – Venya is travelling by train, from Moscow to Petushki to see his girlfriend and infant son – this journey represents a celebration of the entire life experience, as filtered through an alcohol-induced state of transcendence. Venya’s story is a comedic, yet scathing, indictment of a repressive system that ultimately must fail in its effort to subjugate human spirit, intellect, and passion.
“Wonderful theatre… I applaud Mr. Jevne!”
Stass Klassen, Artistic Director, New York Art Theatre.
“Jevne delivers an exhilarating evening of authentic Russian madness.”
Murray Gold, Musical Director for Doctor Who, and award-winning West End playwright (Electricity)
Venue #: 7, Yardbird Suite – 11 Tommy banks Way
August 15 11:45 PM
August 16 4:30 PM
August 17 7:00 PM
August 18 3:00 PM
August 19 8:30 PM
August 20 12:30 PM
This show is 90 minutes in length.
Adults $12.50 Students/Senior $10
Fringe ticket info: 780-448-9000
Email: fta@fringetheatre.ca
Monday Magazine review: Jan 7/11
They say it’s hard to act drunk. If that’s true, Clayton Jevne deserves accolades for his performance in Moscow Stations — and if it isn’t, he deserves them anyway, as he shows us that the plays anti-hero is not just a drunk of epic proportions, but also a human being.
The play — adapted by Stephen Mulrine from Venedict Yerofeev’s 1969 novel Moscow to Petushki — tells the story of a booze-soaked commuter (also named Yerofeev) who is taking the train from Moscow to Petushki to visit his girlfriend and infant son. We first meet Yerofeev, who is like a cross between Tom Waits and Colonel Tigh from the re-visioned Battlestar Galactica series, when he awakens in a doorway in Moscow at dawn and begins to detail exactly what brand of booze he drank the night before and where he consumed it. After searching vainly for a place to have an early morning tipple — and observing a moment of silence for the two hours he had to spend dry — Yerofeev begins his journey, all the while waxing poetic about his passionate lover, the near-utopian town of Petushki as well as characters from both his past and his imagination… It was a real treat… to watch Jevne’s masterful performance… I never thought a meditation on the hiccup would be so entertaining and enthralling.
Clayton Jevne
Since 1978 Clayton has been at the helm of Theatre Inconnu, Victoria’s longest producing alternative theatre company. Under the Inconnu banner, he has participated in over 120 shows; in the capacity of actor, director, or designer. Clayton was Artist-in-Residence at Bishops’ University in Quebec, and teaches acting and directing in the University of Victoria theatre department (from which he holds a PhD). For two decades, his solo performances have entertained thousands at scores of festivals, including the Festival Sinaloa (Mexico) and the Aberdeen Alternative Festival (Scotland), where he shared the line up with theatre legend Stephen Berkoff.
Venedikt Yerofeev
Yerofeev was born (1938) in the small settlement Niva-2, suburb of Kandalaksha, Murmansk Oblast. His father survived 16 years in the gulags. He was expelled from various universities due to his freethinking. Between 1958 and 1975 Yerofeev lived in numerous Soviet countries doing different low-qualified and underpaid jobs. He started writing at the age of 17. Yerofeev is best known for his 1969 poem in prose Moscow-Petushki; published in Israel1973, immediately making him famous throughout the world. It was not published in the Soviet Union until 1989. In1988 he wrote My Little Leniniana – a collection of Lenin’s writing, which shows the darker side of the “leader of the proletariat”. In 1972 Yerofeev wrote a novel about Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, but the manuscript was stolen in a train and never found. He died of throat cancer in 1990. Before his death he finished a play called Steps of the Commodore.
